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msmichaela's Reviews (545)
Just really did not care about these essays.
Laura Lippman is so good. The big twist at the end is so good, and the logic is flawless. Not my usual genre, but I gobbled it up.
I love Catherine Newman’s nonfiction, but her fiction to me feels a bit weaker—in part because it feels like such thinly veiled auto fiction. The protagonist of this novel, for instance, feels about her adult children exactly the way Newman had written about hers; same with her parents and husband. It’s only the plot details that (presumably) diverge from real life.
I don’t know that I would recommend reading this 10 days before taking your only child to college—though if you’re looking for catharsis, it certainly did the trick. Kelly is a warm, generous, emotionally intelligent companion, even if the memoir is at least as much about her career as a foreign correspondent as it is an account of a single year in her family’s life. I wanted more of the latter, but was happy enough with what Kelly shared about love and grief and community.
The most unlikeable protagonist in recent memory! The novel is unrelentingly grim as Kuang traces the all-too-believable path a third-tier white female writer takes after her much more successful Korean frenemy dies suddenly. The plot is a little overwrought at times, but it packs a punch.
Jenn Romolini and I are the same age, from similar backgrounds and work in related fields (she was far more successful, at least by external measures). When I tell you I gobbled up this memoir… she is a sparkling, evocative writer, and her take on the role of over-work as an avoidance of feelings was nuanced and compelling.
Whew. The deep sadness of this novel almost made me stop reading, but I’m really glad I stuck it out.
The chemistry was hot. But I find it incredibly hard to believe that private equity bros turn out to be the heros and a woman in STEM is the villain. Just deeply, ridiculously unlikely.